SC tells Karnataka to release water for Tamil Nadu

New Delhi, Dec 5: The Supreme Court Wednesday directed Karnataka to supply 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily to Tamil Nadu for the next five days.

Besides this, the apex court bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice Madan B. Lokur said the Cauvery River Monitoring Authority would hold its meeting either Thursday or Friday to decide on the quantum of water that Karnataka would be releasing to Tamil Nadu after five days.

The court said the authority would also keep in mind the standing crops in the lower riparian state.

The court order came during the hearing on a batch of petitions and applications filed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the issue of daily release of 9,000 cusecs of water from Cauvery for the former.

The Cauvery River Authority headed by the prime minister in an interim award Sep 19 directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water every day.

Resuming his arguments, senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for Karnataka, questioned the maintainability of the application by Tamil Nadu in its present form.

Tamil Nadu earlier sought to give a political colour to the whole issue when it alleged that with its eyes on Karnataka assembly election next year, the central government may not push Karnataka to release water for Tamil Nadu as directed by the authority.

Tamil Nadu Tuesday had contended that its standing crops would perish if Cauvery water was not released immediately.